Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Looking to buy a Contour, are they reliable?

My brother has one and I absolutely love the feel of the car and although that will make two of the same cars at the same house, I definitely want one. I'm just wondering whether or not the SVT's are reliable?

Here's the sale.
Autotrader - 1998 Contour SVT
It's going for $7500 and has 70,000 miles. As long as the water pump has been replaced I should be good to go right?

PS: I came here since my friend said the car looked like someone from contour.org had owned it, possibly because of the aftermarket rims and eibach suspension

WELCOME TO CEG!


as opposed to you standard Honda.. or Toyota... they really dont compare. but if you are talking within a budget, like right next to a cavalier or something else along those lines that is domestic. Really its the best bang for your buck, especially with an SVT. Lots of fun to drive, decent mileage, comfy seats, plenty of space... How can you go wrong? There are a few minor issues. One being the water pump, if you get this SVT, check on that. If it has a white plastic impeller... its the old pump and is ready to go, and supposedly a new water pump is a pretty... Simple fix on the duratec, just a pain in the butt because its in a hard spot to get too. Aside from a water pump, you probably will need a new IAC. Which is REALLY easy to do on the duratec. Thats about it for common problems.

Things to avoide though are HARD right turns followed by gunning the gas pedal, the duratec has an issue with these kind of turns causing oil starvation, which in turn leads to failure of a rod bearing, which leads to the dreaded rod knock. A good way to avoid this is overfilling the oil by about... half a quart to 3/4 of a quart. This certainly helps a lot. The 3rd gear syncro isnt very friendly either, nor is the weak differential in the trannie. Dont be causing a lot of wheel hop, though any car's Diff will blow if you hop the tires all of the time.

This may sound like a lot, but really it isnt. The bottom line is... Just treat the car with respect, give it some spirited driving on occasion (not TOO often) and the car will treat you with respect. Simple as that. That is a VERY nice SVT on autotrader as well, but ask the owner if the struts are the stock SVT ones, with the Eibach springs. If that is the case, you wont be waiting long before the SVT struts will be dead.

I have seen plenty of duratec's go way past the 100K mark. With the proper treatment, I personally think they could easily make it to 200K.

Thanks for all of your help

I was basically looking for a sporty car with decent performance that will last me a while. I just have to treat it nicely! It'll probably take a couple years before I reach the 100k mark so I hope the car will last me.

I'll check up on the waterpump and struts and iac. Thanks

Correction on the water pump. The white impeller is the new style. The problem ones were black.

You can buy two for $5500.00, just look one post down.

You are on a Contour site of course we are gonna say they are reliable. Why else would we have one?

My contour runs as good/better as any honda.

My SVT takes a daily beating and still runs like a champ. I am on my second clutch and I just turned 157,000. I dont buy into that, imports are more reliable crap anymore. When my parents went looking for an SUV, they were visiting the Hyundai lot and met this other guy. He proceeded to tell them about the motor on his Lexus letting go at 60,000 or 80,000 miles and how the dealer wanted 14,000 to fix it! So now he was getting a Hyundai!

My SVT has been very reliable...autocrosses, cruising, and many many, get the speed limit as fast as possible take offs! I would rather rebuild this one than buy another car right now....except for whats in my signature of course!!!